


The Rasp

by kuki



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Common Cold, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, Shiro doesn't effing disappear, Sickfic, Temporary lion switching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-19 06:52:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11308017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuki/pseuds/kuki
Summary: The Slipperies were as harmless to Alteans as the common cold is to humans, but to the Galra, its a different story.For Keith, it started when he caught a cold from Lance and Pidge after the visit to the Space Mall.A klance sickfic.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a shortish one shot, but then the word count got away from me?

Lance sneezed while they were eating lunch. He was completely surprised by it, letting his huge sneeze launch in all directions. Keith wiped his arm, which had gotten most of the spray, on Lance’s jacket with a grimace.

“Cover your mouth.”

“Sorry, it’s like the first time I’ve sneezed since we’ve been in space.” Lance wiped under his nose. There was a bit of snot running from just one of his nostrils. “My throat was a little sore when I woke up this morning…”

Pidge sneezed three times, into her elbow. They were small and adorable sneezes. She groaned, her voice sounding a little rough. “Lance, you think we caught a cold from some of that stuff in the Earth store at the mall?”

“It’s possible.” Lance sneezed again, covering his face this time. He put the back of his hand on his forehead, then looked at Keith, who had leaned away. “Do I feel warm to you?”

With a huff, Keith pressed the back of his hand to Lance’s forehead. Furrowing his eyebrows together, he put his other hand to his own forehead. “You feel normal.”

“Keith, you’ve always run a little warmer than most, Lance come here.” Shiro sighed, motioning for him to walk to the head of the table. Shiro glanced at Pidge, who grimaced. “You too Pidge.”

Both of them walked over to Shiro, pouting slightly. He touched both of their foreheads, and nodded. “You’re both a little warm, go ask Coran if there might be something that could help then go rest. We need you both at one hundred percent.”

“Okay Shiro.” They both whined before heading out of the room, pushing each other.

Hunk sunk down in his chair. “Lance is such a baby when he’s sick. He had a small cold while we were at the Garrison and he spent the whole week in bed whining.”

Keith crossed his arms and let out a little huff of laughter. “Doesn’t surprise me.”

“For the record, I’ve dealt with him before, I’m not doing it again. I’d do almost anything for Lance, he’s my best friend. But I’m not putting up with him while he’s sick.” Hunk put his hands up, as if he was swearing in his statement.

“I’ll check on hi- them both later. I’ve never really gotten sick, so…” Keith looked down at his mostly finished goo.

“Okay, thanks. We can’t afford for two members of the team to be out of it for so long.” Shiro got up and Keith winced at his words. He remembered how bad it was when him and Allura both ran off. If two of the Paladins were out of order, then it would be really bad. “I’m going to go talk to Allura, see if there would be anything we could do if we would need to fight and they can’t help.”

Keith got up not long after Shiro had left and headed towards the training deck. After a few rounds, he headed back towards his room. Lance’s door was open and could hear groaning from inside. With a sigh, he leaned in the doorway.

“Hunk’s right, you really are a drama queen when it comes to being sick.” Keith huffed, looked at Lance who was half covered by his blankets, sprawled on his bed.

“I’m dying Keith, fucking dying.” Lance groaned readjusting his blanket so different parts of his body were covered.

“You’ll be fine. It’s just a cold. I’m pretty sure they prescribe chicken soup and fever reducers for this kind of thing.” Keith walked in and straightened out the blanket so all of Lance was covered. He put his hand on Lance’s forehead. “Wow, you really are warm now.”

“Could almost say I’m _hot_ , right?” Lance grinned at him and Keith scoffed.

“Not with snot coming out of your nose like that.” Keith grabbed the cylinder of what looked like tissues, holding one out to Lance.

Lance took it, wiping his nose. He let out a groan, holding his hand out for another one. Once it was in his hand, he sneezed, twice. “I hate being sick, especially since we’re in space and we can’t just go grab some Nyquil.”

“I take it Coran didn’t have anything that could help?” Keith sat on the edge of Lance’s bed, frowning at him.

“He’s checking. He doesn’t want to give us something and have it kill us.” Lance rolled so he was on his side facing Keith. “How did the common cold even get to space?”

Keith shrugged and looked down at him. “Do you need anything?”

“Ice water? Maybe some food goo?”

Nodding, Keith stood back up. “I’m going to go check on Pidge then I’ll be back with it.”

Pidge wasn’t in her room, and he groaned as he headed down to Green’s hanger. She was sitting in front of her impromptu computer, typing away. As he approached, he started having a coughing fit. Green face moved down like she was trying to get a closer look as to what was happening to her paladin.

“You should be in your room, resting.” Keith huffed as he leaned on the table. She was still coughing, but gave him the finger with the hand she wasn’t covering her face with.

Once the fit was over, she grabbed the drink she had and took a few gulps. “You sound like Shiro.”

“I volunteered to keep an eye on you and Lance until you’re both better, so…” Keith looked away, crossing his arms.

She hummed and started typing again, the screen reflecting on her glasses. “I’ll be fine, it’s just a cold Keith.”

“Alright, fine…” Keith huffed. “Do you need anything though?”

“Why did you volunteer for this?”

“Uh… I-I… uh…” He felt his face flush when she turned and looked at him over her glasses. It would have had a better effect if she didn’t have a slight glisten from sick sweat or snot coming out of her nose. “Just… trying to be a good teammate.”

“Okay.” She looked back at the screen but reached for the cylinder of tissues. “I’m almost out of these.”

Keith ruffled her hair before heading out of the hangar. She yelled back at him, but he just smiled.

Lance was shivering and asleep when Keith came back with his water and goo. His blanket was lying on the floor. Sighing, Keith covered Lance up and started picking up the used tissues that Lance had just been throwing around. When he left, closing the door, Lance was still asleep.

He heard Lance a few hours later, through their shared wall. The other boy was having a massive coughing fit, even worse than the one Pidge had earlier. Keith stood up, putting the Blade he had been staring at for hours back under his pillow.

Lance was doubled over from the force of his coughing. Keith gently smacked his back a few times before it finally stopped. After Lance downed most of the water that Keith held out to him, he smiled up at Keith.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Keith looked away, crossing his arms. “I take it you’re not feeling better?”

“It’s only been a few hours since you last saw me, and colds always get worse before they get better.” Lance huffed as he curled back up under his covers.

“What? You can’t just talk the cold out of you?” Keith grinned at him and Lance looked utterly unimpressed.

“So, you’ve got jokes now?”

“Someone has to.” Lance threw one of his tissues at him. Keith chuckled, putting his hands up to block it. “Kidding.”

“Uh-huh.”

Keith just kind of stood there for a while before he cleared his throat. “Do you need anything?”

“I’m good on tissues, and water. Thanks though.” Lance sat up, wrapping his blanket around his shoulders. “Could be warmer…”

Nodding, Keith sat next to Lance, manhandling him so he was almost wrapped around him and they were shoulder to shoulder.

“You might feel cold, but you’re burning up.” Keith looked at Lance, who settled against him.

“And you really do give off a lot of heat.” Lance smiled at him. “If you get this close, you’re going to catch my cold.”

“I’ve never been sick before, I’ll be fine.” Keith’s face flushed slightly. Lance was covered in snot and sweat, but it was nice to be close to him.

“Yeah, you say that, but we’re in space!”

“Okay? What does that have to do with me getting sick?”

“It… I guess it doesn’t. But if you get sick, then three of us will be out and Allura and Shiro are going to be pissed.”

“It’ll be your fault. Being suck a baby.”

“I’m not being a baby!”

“You’re being a huge baby.”

“Uh, maybe you’re the one that’s being a baby!”

“Lance, that doesn’t make any sense.” Keith rolled his eyes and Lance just grinned at him.

They sat in silence – occasionally interrupted by Lance sneezing, coughing or sniffling –for a while before Keith stood up. Lance pouted at him as he pulled the blanket around him, shivering now that his human space heater was gone.

“I’m going to head to bed, if you need anything during the night, just knock.” Keith stopped in the doorway and smiled back at him. “Get some rest, you need it.”

“What if I get cold?”

“I need a shower just from being near you just now, there’s no way I’m letting you sleep in my bed just to steal my heat.”

After his shower, Keith pulled the knife back out from under his pillow, staring at it before he fell asleep.

Before heading to breakfast, he popped his head in to check on Lance. He rubbed his throat, which was a little itchy. Lance was still asleep, so he just picked up the tissues. The other boy was running low on tissues and water, so he was planning on grabbing them for him after he got himself breakfast.

Allura and Coran were on either side of Pidge, asking her about her symptoms. They seemed fascinated. Shiro and Hunk were both sitting far away from her, looking at her a bit like she should have been quarantined.

“Oh, not you too Keith. I’m going back to my room right after breakfast.” Pidge punctated it with a few sniffles and then wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

Nodding, Keith helped himself to some food goo, walking to sit with Hunk and Shiro. He didn’t make it the table before he sneezed violently and dropped his tray. A few more sneezes made Shiro stand up and walk over to him.

“Keith, you okay?”

“Fuck, I think I caught their cold…” Keith groaned as he looked down at his food.

“We’ll clean this up, go back to your room.” Shiro smiled at him. “Coran is pretty sure he found something that should help you guys with the symptoms.”

“I’ll bring it by later!” Coran called as Keith left the room.

When Keith laid on his bed, he groaned. “Lance!” He said it loud enough that the other boy should have heard it through the wall.

“Yeah buddy?”

“You gave me your stupid cold!”

“I warned you.”

Keith opened his mouth to respond, but just coughed. And coughed. When it didn’t stop, Lance walked into his room and hit his back like Keith had done for him the day before.

“I hate you.” Keith looked at Lance with what he wanted to be a glare. Lance smiled at him.

“Don’t blame me. You’re the one that insisted on getting cuddly last night.”

“You look terrible.” Keith sighed as he sat up. “Worse than yesterday.”

“Told you, gets worse…”

“How can it get worse than this?” He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, glad that he hadn’t actually put his gloves on yet.

Lance let out a little huff of laughter that turned into a cough, and then he sneezed twice. “Like that.”

“Ugh.”

A few moments later, Coran came in and both boys turned to look at him.

“Ah, convenient, two in one go.” He had two plastic cups in his hands filled with an odd yellow colored liquid. Both boys grabbed one when he held them out. Keith tipped his head back and swallowed it quickly. It tasted terrible, and left him with an odd tingling feeling in his throat. Lance looked at Keith in horror before taking a small sip. He made a face.

“Take it in one go, it’s easier that way…” Keith handed Coran the cup back. He didn’t feel any different, not that he expected the medicine to work quickly.

Lance made a retching sound once he finished, wiping his mouth. “That’s absolutely disgusting.”

“I also brought a temperature scanner. It should be able to compare your temperatures to Lance’s normal from his time in the healing pod.” Coran rubbed something electronic looking over Lance’s forehead. It made an angry beeping noise. “Hmm, definitely high, but nothing dangerous. Only four gleps higher than your normal. Number Five was three higher than your normal.”

“‘Glep’?” Lance furrowed his brows together, then looked at Keith who looked just as confused.

“I run a little warmer than average so, keep that in mind when you take mine.” Keith looked at Coran who nodded before swiping his forehead.

The sound it made was deafening. Lance and Keith both put their hands up to their ears until it stopped. Coran’s eyes were wide, locked on the screen.

“C-Coran?” Keith’s voice when he said the man’s name.

“Ten gleps…”

“Is that…” Lance looked at Keith, who was tense now.

“If an Altean gets about twelve gleps above their normal, we die.” Coran moved his horrified gaze to Keith. “Hopefully that medicine helps to cool you down. Come to the medbay later and we’ll see how it’s helping.”

Lance nodded as he watched Coran leave. Keith took a few centering breaths. “The first time I get sick and I’m close to dying.”

“You’re going to be fine, you run a little warm anyway.” Lance smiled at him, gripping his shoulder reassuringly.

“But that much? I doubt my normal temperature is six ‘gleps’ above your normal.”

Sighing, Lance got up. “I’m going to grab some more tissues and water, come get me when you want to go to the medbay.”

“Can you grab me some water and tissues while your going?” Keith sniffled as he laid back down.

“Sure thing.”

After Lance had left, but before he came back, Keith managed to fall asleep. He wasn’t sure how long he was asleep when he woke up to coughs racking through his body. They were so bad they made him gag in between. Once it was over he noticed he was shivering. His body was still too hot, because his hair was sticking to his forehead because of sweat. It throat was so sore he wasn’t sure he’d be able to talk and he couldn’t breathe out of his nose.

Groaning, he got up and swallowed down a lot of water and blew his nose. His legs were shaky and his entire body just felt too weak to do anything. But he needed to see Coran in the medbay.

Lance’s door was open and Pidge was sitting across from him on the bed. They both looked fine, like they had never been sick. Both of them had been laughing, but their smiles fell off their faces when they looked up at him.

“Oh my-…” Lance got off the bed and put his hands on Keith’s shoulders with a worried look. “You look like shit dude! Like easily ten times worse than I felt ealier.”

“I feel like shit.” Keith lowered his gaze. “So, whatever Coran gave us helped you two?”

“Yeah, a little stuffy, but otherwise I feel perfectly fine.” Pidge said as she got off the bed.

“Same… Hopefully it wasn’t what made you so much worse so fast.” Lance took a step away from Keith. Without the support from Lance, Keith started wavering and Lance’s eyes went wide and grabbed his shoulders again. “You going to be okay to walk down to the medbay?”

“I might need some help.” Keith huffed, and Lance very quickly moved so he was next to Keith with his arm around his waist. If Keith didn’t feel like absolute crap and wasn’t already flushed from the fever, his face would have been bright red.

“We could just put his back in bed and go get Coran.” Pidge muttered under her breath as she followed after the two.

Coran looked at Keith curiously. Keith was heaving for breath. His chest was so tight and every time his chest expanded he felt an explosion of pain.

“But you two are better?” Coran glanced at Pidge and Lance, who both nodded.

Twirling his mustache, he ran the thermometer across Lance’s forehead. Then Pidge’s. It didn’t make any noise for either. “You’re both only one glep above normal now…”

Keith swallowed hard when Coran ran it across his forehead. He closed his eyes tightly when words came from the device. It was Altean, but it was the same tone that a warning message would be in.

“Fourteen gleps. We need to get you cooled down, now.” Coran set the device down and pulled up one of the healing pods, taping on the buttons on the screen.

Keith started to stand up but let out a whimper of pain when he put weight on his legs. He was falling forward, but Lance caught him.

“I got you.” Lance’s arm was quickly around his waist again before he helped him over to the pod. He very gently helped him lean against the back of the pod. “You’re going to be okay.”

Keith just nodded before the pod closed. With a deep breath, he felt himself lose consciousness.

Lance crossed his arms as he looked at Keith in there. Coran was looking at some of the Altean on the door, his brows furrowing as he read.

“He is going to be okay, isn’t he?” Lance asked, his voice quiet.

“Yes, of course!” Coran smiled at him, in his usual chipper tone. “You should go get Shiro so I can fill him in on Keith’s condition.”

Pidge and Lance both left.

“Hey, if Coran says he’s going to be okay, he’s going to be okay.” Pidge touched Lance’s shoulder. It wasn’t until she touched him that Lance noticed he was shaking. “Let’s find Shiro, he’ll want to know.”

Once they found Shiro, who was on the bridge with Allura, looking at the map and talking about the plan, Lance had calmed down enough that he wasn’t shaking anymore. Shiro and Allura both smiled them, obviously noticing how they looked better.

“Glad to see you both looking better.” Allura clasped her hands together.

Shiro’s smile faded when he noticed they weren’t as thrilled as their leaders were. “Where’s Keith?”

“He’s… he’s doing a lot worse.” Lance looked down.

“His temp is up fourteen gleps, and he can barely stand on his own.” Pidge sighed, looking at Shiro seriously.

“Fourteen gleps?” Allura’s voice was shrill as she covered her mouth. She looked like the vision of panic.

“Coran put him in a healing pod to cool him down, but he said he wanted to talk to you Shiro.”

Shiro absolutely had no idea what a glep was, but Allura’s panic and the aura of worry from Lance and Pidge had him storming out of the bridge. Allura made a few motions with her hands and map of the universe disappeared.

“I would also like to talk to Coran about this.” She walked passed them.

“Come on, lets grab Hunk and let him know too.” Pidge smiled at Lance. Lance just nodded, not looking at her.

Coran was looking at something on one of the other monitors when Shiro came in, breathing heavily from running. Quickly, Coran pressed a few buttons and what was on his screen was gone.

Shiro barely noticed what Coran had been doing as he walked over to the healing pod, a frown deep on his face. He touched the glass. Keith looked so peaceful, innocent. “How bad is it?”

“He should be fine; his temperature has already gone down a little. If we cool him down too quickly he could go into shock.” Coran walked over while twirling his mustache.

“Pidge and Lance are fine now though.” Shiro looked at him, trying to keep his composure. “Why isn’t Keith?”

“He’s effected by the illness differently than them. There were some odd readings from the pod, I’m analyzing and double checking them now.” Coran put his hand on his shoulder and looked towards the doors to see Allura come into the room.

He quietly relayed the same information he had given Shiro to Allura, who nodded. She looked at Keith sadly before announcing she was returning to the bridge. They couldn’t sit idle while Keith was out of the picture for the moment, but they wouldn’t be able to get into any fights with the enemy.

After talking to filling in Hunk, Lance went to Keith’s room. He had cleaned up his own room since he was feeling better, but even though Keith hadn’t been sick as long, his room was worse. It stank of stale sweat and there were tissues littering the floor.

A knife fell to the ground while Lance was changing the sheets. He picked it up, recognizing it. Keith almost always had it with him. The wrappings around the handle were loose and curiousity got the best of him.

Sitting on the bed, Lance looked at the symbol on the knife. He knew exactly where he had seen it before. Keith had asked Ulaz so many questions. “Where did you get this?”

The door opened and he quickly tucked the knife under the pile of dirty sheets. He looked up and saw Shiro standing in the doorway.

“Hey…” Shiro sounded tired, looked tired.

“Hey, thought it might be nice for his room to be clean when he’s better.” Lance shrugged. “How is he doing?”

“Coran says that he’s doing better, but I’d feel better if he could tell me that.” Shiro crossed his arms and looked down at the floor.

“Yeah…”

“Lance, thank you, for doing this for him.”

“Of course, he would’ve done the same thing for me. I feel like it’s my fault that he’s sick.” Lance dropped his face into his hands and shook his head.

“Don’t, it’s not anyone’s fault. None of us had idea a simple cold could be this bad.”

Not knowing how to respond, Lance just scoffed. He could feel Shiro standing there, staring at him in silence.

“You two butt heads a lot, but you really care for him.”

“We’re a team, we have to take care of each other, right?” Lance looked away, his chest tightening slightly. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand as he felt his face flush.

“I think it’s more than that.” Shiro was smiling when Lance glanced at him. “You should tell him.”

“What if he doesn’t feel the same way?” Lance grabbed a tissue and blew his nose.

“Even if he doesn’t, hearing how much he mean to you will make him really happy. This is the first time Keith has had something close to a family.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not my place to talk about his past, you should ask him about it.” Shiro turned with a sigh. “I’ll let you finish cleaning this mess up.”

Lance took the knife back out from the pile of sheets, wrapping the glowing mark back up. “Who are you?”

After he finished cleaning Keith’s room, putting the knife back under Keith’s pillow, he grabbed food. Hunk and Pidge both tried to talk to him, but he quickly finished the goo and headed back down to the medbay.

Coran didn’t notice him come in, but Lance barely glanced over at him. He did a double take though when he saw the screen. With a sigh, he walked over to stand next to Coran who was working to change the window.

“Was that a diagram of Galra anatomy?”

The mustachioed alien turned and blinked at him, completely shocked by how un-shocked Lance had sounded. “Yes. The scans showed… some strange things.”

“He… there’s no way he’s actually Galra, right?” Lance looked over at Keith, who looked the same as he always did. Actually, he was even more beautiful in the pod induced sleep, at peace instead of with the usual scowl.

“I’ve run the tests six times: the pod indicates at least some level of Galra heritage.” Coran pulled up another page. Lance squinted at it. Everything was in Altean and nothing on it made any sense to him.

“What am I looking at here man?”

“Remember when I had the Slipperies a few weeks ago?” When Lance nodded, Coran continued. “The virus is practically harmless to Alteans, but when a Galra gets infected by it… it wreaks havoc on their immune system, making even common illnesses dangerous. It also stimulates the pain nerves during flare ups. Sometimes it over stimulates the nerves to the point where someone infected might lose the sense of touch.”

Lance’s eyes went wide as he looked over at Keith. It made so much sense with how Keith had reacted to having just a simple cold, especially after claiming to never being sick before. “I take it there is no cure?”

“No, and I suspect the Galra no longer know how to treat it, since there haven’t been Alteans to catch it from for ten thousand years.”

Lance swallowed hard and walked over to the healing pod. He touched the glass while looking at Keith’s face. “Why didn’t the drugs you gave us work on him?”

“Altean medicines don’t work on the Galra, most are poisonous to them. Being part human probably saved him from getting damaged by the medicine.” Coran pressed a few buttons to erase his search history and walked over to Lance. “We do have some Galra medicines, but nothing for the symptoms of your ‘cold’.”

“Hang in there Keith, we’ll figure something out.” Lance smiled at him sadly. “Coran, are you… are you going to tell anyone else, about this?”

“Why? Do you think we shouldn’t?”

“I don’t think he knows, he suspects, but he doesn’t _know_. I’m not sure if he’s ready to know.” Lance glanced at Coran. “Do you think Allura would be able to accept the truth, when she finds out?”

“This illness if not going to go away. He should know at least.”

“I’ll tell him, when we’re sure he’s going to be okay for a while.” Lance looked back at Keith. He imagined what he would look like if he looked more Galra. “Is it called something else, to the Galra?”

“They call it the Rasp.” Coran gripped his shoulder then left the room.

Lance stayed there, eventually moving to sit with his back against the glass. The room was so quiet, so he filled it. Him and Hunk occasionally talked about home, but he never tired of talking about his family. As he explained how his cousin had completely ruined Thanksgiving dinner the year before, he wondered if Keith could hear him. He didn’t remember anything from his time in the healing pod, but he had also been in an explosion and not infected with alien AIDs.

Shiro stopped by later, and Lance stood up when he came in. He stared at Keith and sighed. “How long have you been here?”

“No idea, not that long.” It was a lie, it had been hours at least. Everyone had been waiting for him so impatiently when he was hurt that they resorted to a time measuring competition. And no one was waiting for Keith.

Nodding, Shiro walked closer, looking at the Altean writing on the glass. “Looks like his temperature is close to normal.”

“Uh?” Lance wondered how Shiro would react when he found out about Keith being part purple alien. On one hand, the Galra had held him captive for a year, and on the other, the Blade of Marmora was the reason he was free and Voltron was around to defeat Zarkon. To Lance, it didn’t change anything.

“Coran explained the thermometer part of the display, but I’m not sure I’m reading it right.”

“The pod healed me after an explosion, I’m sure Keith will be fine.”

“Yeah.” Then Shiro left again. Lance rested his forehead against the glass.

“You better be fine, you stupid hothead.”

Lance woke up to Pidge and Hunk staring at him. He looked around and found himself laying in front of Keith’s healing pod.

“Did you… did you sleep here man?” Hunk’s brows were creased and Pidge’s were raised.

“Wow, talk about pining much.” She grinned at him, then looked at Keith’s face. “How is he doing?”

“Not sure. Last night, his temperature was close to normal, so hopefully we’ll be able to get him out soon.”

It was two more days, during which Lance spent most of the time in the medbay, before the pod beeped and opened. Shiro and Coran were both in the room checking on him, along with Lance when he stumbled out.

He opened his eyes and searched the three faces staring at him. His first step out of the pod was shaking, and Shiro put a stabilizing hand on his shoulder as he smiled.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Shiro asked.

After a few breaths he spoke, his voice a little raspy. “Sore… How long was I in the pod?”

“Like three days.” Lance felt completely fine after his time in the pod, but it was probably Keith’s new disease that made him feel the way he felt. “It’s good to have you back.”

Keith looked at Lance, looking at him like he hadn’t registered that he was there. His face flushed slightly. When he finally spoke again, his voice was more normal. “Uh… yeah, thanks.”

Focusing back on Shiro, Keith gently moved Shiro’s hand off of him. “I’m going to grab a shower. That’ll probably help with the soreness.”

Pidge, Hunk, and Allura were thrilled that Keith was back in working order. The princess started talking about their next step. Keith came in, his hair still damp from his shower, about an hour later. Lance could tell that there was still something wrong, he was too pale for his liking.

“How are you feeling Keith?” Allura smiled at him softly.

“Better, ready to go whenever.” Keith’s voice was his usual confident tone, but Lance saw a slight quiver of his shoulders.

“Are you sure? We could probably wait a day or two if you’re not at one hundred percent.” Shiro took a step towards him.

“I’m good, I promise.” Keith sat down in his chair and glanced at the map. “What’s are next move?”

Shiro and Allura both nodded before turning to the map. Coran cleared his throat and announced their destination. “We’re approaching the coordinates Ulaz gave us.”

Lance watched Keith’s shoulders tense as he glared up at the map. He had a bad feeling about this.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance had done his best to protest Keith going along with Shiro to the Blade of Marmora base, and he tried to make sure that no one thought it was because he was worried that Keith was not okay to go. He was going to pull Keith’s recent illness out as a point as to why Keith shouldn’t go, but Shiro’s tone made it seem very final. Keith was glaring at him, insisting that he was fine.

Watching the red lion fly towards the star and black holes, his feelings of dread only grew. Somehow this was going to go terribly, and Lance wished there was more he could’ve done to convince Shiro to take someone else. Maybe not him, Allura would’ve been a good choice if she wasn’t so skeptical about the Blade of Marmora.

When Red started attacking the base, Lance should have been more surprised, but he wasn’t. His worry was validated, but it didn’t stop him from being terrified that something truly terrible was happening to his friends. The tension in the room was palpable, but it dissipated some when Shiro’s voice came through the coms and Red stopped attacking. Lance still felt dread. Something had happened to Keith, something bad. They all quickly moved to be waiting for them in Red’s hangar.

Lance’s eyes were locked on Keith while everyone else was watching Kolivan talk to Allura. Keith’s entire body was shaking and if he wasn’t holding onto Shiro’s arm, he would probably would've fallen over. He could make out that Shiro and Keith were talking to each other, barely a whisper between them.

“… just want to get this over with…” He managed to hear Keith say, and Shiro just nodded. Shiro looked as shaken as Keith, but Keith also looked like he had been put through a meat grinder.

“Hey, team…” Shiro’s voice didn’t hold the usual authority it usually did when he addressed them. “There’s something… something Keith needs to tell everyone.”

Lance crossed his arms and braced himself. His eyes flickered over at Coran who looked curious, but like a fake curious.

Keith swallowed hard and held the knife that Lance had found a few days earlier out in front of him. Lance looked around, trying to guage everyone’s reactions. Then the blade changed, into a sword. It was obvious that everyone else was shocked, even Shiro - even Keith.

“I’ve had this knife all my life… and it can only do this… it can only do this for a Galra.” Keith sounded so resigned and Lance wanted to hold him, and not just because he looked like he was about to pass out.

Shiro looked down at the floor, and Lance could tell that he felt somewhat betrayed and that he was trying to hide it. Pidge brought her hand up to her mouth, her eyes wide behind her glasses. Hunk looked terrified. And Allura, she looked pissed. She took a step forward and opened her mouth to say something, but Coran grabbed her shoulders, whispering something to her. Without a word, she turned and stormed out of the hangar.

Coran talked to the two Galra warriors, motioning for them to follow him. Pidge and Hunk were both just kind of staring at Keith like an animal in a zoo. Shiro still looked uncomfortable standing next to him.

Lance walked towards Keith, who was now looking down at the blade in his hand like it had offended him. “Hey, you don’t look so good. Are you hurt? We should get you to the medbay.”

Keith looked up at him, and searched his face. He looked confused when he didn’t see what we was suspecting, didn't see anger or fear or mistrust. He nodded, and the blade turned back into a knife. After he tucked it away, he let go of Shiro and tottered forward a little. Lance put his arm around Keith’s waist quickly, taking almost of all of Keith’s weight.

Once Keith was no longer relying on Shiro to stand, Shiro walked over to Pidge and Hunk, talking them quietly. Keith glanced at them and then down at the ground.

“You good to go?”

“Y-Yeah…” Keith looked up at him again.

The walk to the medbay was silent, the blue paladin didn't know what to say. Keith sat on one of the ledges and winced as he started to pry off his armor. Lance frowned as he watched him, then his eyes went wide as he saw the giant cut on Keith’s shoulder. He immediately moved to where the bandages were. His eyes went to the medicines. They were all the Altean ones that Coran was sure wouldn’t hurt the human members of the team, but he didn’t want to risk using them on his only part human team mate.

Keith looked at him when he sat next to him and started bandaging him up. There were dark circles under his eyes, his hair was a mess, and he looked so pale.

“You should probably get in a healing pod, but after spending three days in one, you’re probably not keen on getting back into one.” Lance smiled at him and Keith looked so broken. With a sigh, Lance looked back at where he was working. “How exactly did you get injured?”

“I wanted answers, about the blade… and I had to fight for them.” Keith reached up to shoulder once Lance was done. Rotating his shoulder slightly to test it, he grunted in pain.

“Did you get them, your answers?” Lance looked over his torso for more injuries. There didn’t seem to be any more wounds, just bruises. He wondered if any of his ribs were injured under those dark spots.

“No, not enough.” Keith looked up at him again with a deep frown on his face. “Why aren’t you freaking out? Everyone else… even Shiro…”

“Shiro doesn’t hate you, and they all just need some time to process this, and so do you.” Lance grimaced when he realized how that sounded. “I already knew, Coran did too… I was going to tell you but you had to insist you were fine enough to go down there.”

Keith looked like he wasn’t breathing as he stood up, moving away from Lance. “What?”

“While you were in the pod, I cleaned up your room, and I found the blade… then when I came in here… Coran told me the pod detected that you were part Galra.” Lance sighed, fumbling with the bandages that were still in his hands. “I’m sorry that I didn’t…”

“And you’re not… scared of me, don’t hate me?” Keith really looked like he was about to pass out.

“No, you’re still you. So maybe you’re part alien, that hasn’t exactly put me off before. Please sit down before you fall over.” Lance reached out towards him slowly, his brows creased with worry.

“But I’m Galra!” Keith sat down, but not close to Lance.

“And the Blade aren’t evil, so it’s not like it’s in the DNA. Actually, you being part Galra explains a lot.” Lance sighed, looking at Keith seriously. “Like why you were so sick.”

“What do you mean?”

Once Lance finished explaining what Coran had told him about the Rasp, Keith stood up. He was shaking and Lance was sure that there were tears streaming down his cheeks. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to bring it up, but there probably wasn’t a best time to bring it up.

“Can you help me back to my room?”

Lance nodded with a smile. When he moved over to Keith, he wiped the tears from his eyes before wrapped his arm around him to support him.

When they were back in Keith's room, Keith sat on his bed and got off the rest of his armor. “I should probably clean up…”

“You going to be okay?”

“I should be… would you mind staying close, just in case?” Keith didn’t look at him as he stood up and moved towards the adjoined bathroom.

“Yeah, yeah…” Lance’s face was red as he licked his lips. He sat on Keith’s bed once Keith had gone into the bathroom and the shower started. The Blade was sitting on the pilled, and Lance picked it up again. At least Keith knew something, even if it wasn’t everything.

A few minutes into the shower, Lance heard a loud crash in the bathroom and then not a small amount of swearing. He rushed into the bathroom and saw Keith on the floor of the shower, his arms wrapped around his torso. Quickly, he knelt down, his clothes getting soaked from the water.

“Fuck, are you okay?” Lance gently touched him. The water was slightly pink from the blood and Lance imagined if he had come in a few minutes before it would've been red.

“Help me up…” Keith held out one his hands to Lance as he winced. Lance nodded and pulled him off the ground gently. “I just need to sleep…”

“Definitely.” Lance helped him to his bed then went back to the bathroom to grab him a towel. Keith took it and started drying off, wincing as he touched the more pronounced bruises. “Those Marmora guys really did a number on you.”

“I could’ve stopped anytime I wanted. I wanted… I didn’t want to just give up.” Keith swallowed hard as he let the towel drape over his hair. “It was so stupid. I don’t know anything after all that, and now everyone hates me…”

“N-…”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t see their faces? Allura, Shiro, Pidge. The Galra took so much away from them! And maybe they’re not all bad, but how can I try to… when I’ve been lying to them this entire time!” Keith’s voice was shrill as he yelled, and Lance could tell he was close to hysterics.

“You weren’t lying… you didn’t know…” Lance bent down in front of him, trying to ignore the fact that he was naked. “If anyone was lying to them, it was me and Coran.”

“It doesn’t matter… my entire life has just been one big cosmic joke.” Keith let out a huff of nervous laughter. “I still don’t get why you’re being so nice to me.”

“Because… because I like you.” Lance smiled at him, reaching out and cupping Keith’s cheek. Might as well drop all the bombshells on Keith at once.

Keith’s eyes went wide. “You mean like…”

“Like, really like you.” Lance nodded. “It’s okay if you don’t…”

“What if I turn purple?” He closed his eyes tightly. “Even if I…”

“Yes, if you turn purple or start growing fur, if you look more like other Galra.” Lance moved a little closer. “Though, if you grow a tail, I might reevulate my feelings, but otherwise…”

When Keith started laughing, a genuine laugh and a genuine smile, Lance pushed his hair back gently. His eyes roamed the other boy's face as he cupped his cheek and soothed circled into his skin with his thumb. Keith's face flushed as he looked back at him, his breathing was swallow. The distance between them when Keith’s hands grabbed the front of Lance’s soaked shirt and pulled him closer. Their lips collided. Lance’s eyes went wide in shock, but he quickly kissed Keith back, slow and sweet. There was a faint taste of blood in his mouth, the initial force of the kiss had reopened Keith’s split lip.

They were both breathing heavily when they pulled apart, their cheeks flushed. Keith was searching Lance’s face and Lance was smiling softly. “So, I take it you like me too then?”

“Yeah… I have for a while.” Keith looked so nervous. “It’s okay… right?”

“Yeah, it's awesome, actually... But we’ll talk about it later. You should get dressed and get some sleep. You’ve been through a lot today.”

Keith’s eyes went wide and his face was redder than his lion, like he had forgotten that he was naked with the boy he liked. Lance chuckled and got up, looking around for Keith’s clothes. He handed them to Keith and turned away.

“C-Can you stay here with me? Like sleep with me?” Keith’s voice sounded so small, but Lance just gave him a coy grin.

“Moving a little fast, are we?” Lance winked then nodded, his lips turning into a soft smile. “And yeah, I will, because I know what you mean, because anything more than sleeping and you’d probably break in half the way you look.”

“Thanks…” Keith smiled at him, his face still bright red.

“Get comfortable, I’m going to go change out of these wet clothes.”

When he was safely behind the door of his room, he did a small dance of victory before changing into his pajamas. At least one thing was going okay for the red paladin lately.

Keith was laying close to the wall when Lance came back into his room. He laid down next to him, smiling at him.

“What if they want me off the team?” Keith asked, his eyes closed and his body tensed. The smile fell off Lance's face as he sighed.

“They’re not going to kick you off the team. Red would probably leave with you if they did, and it would probably ruin our alliance with the Blade, and even if Shiro is upset about this you two are closer than any of us, _and_ I won’t let them.” Lance draped his arm over Keith’s waist and moved closer to him. Keith let out a sigh, tucking his head under Lance’s chin.

“But what if…”

“Nope, not going to happen. Don’t worry about what might happen and just get some sleep.” Lance kissed the top of his head, squeezing him gently. When Keith whimpered in pain, Lance swore. “Fuck, sorry. You okay?”

“Yeah, just… everything hurts.”

“Tomorrow we’ll see if Coran’s got any painkillers that won’t kill you.”

Keith grumbled something, his hands gripped the fabric of Lance’s shirt. Lance made small circles into Keith’s skin with his thumb. When the pattern of Keith’s breathing changed, Lance smiled.

“Goodnight little Galra.”

Keith woke up with a pained groan. Lance was already awake and was staring at him.

“You okay?” Lance felt like those words had become most of his vocabulary since being in space. Whether he was asking them or being asked, they had a daily use on the castle.

“Feels like my nerves are on fire and every muscle in my body is sore.” Keith frowned at him.

“I wish there was something I could do for you.” Lance gently pressed his lips to Keith’s. Keith stared at him.

“So, that really did happen last night?” Keith’s face was flushed.

Laughing, Lance nodded as he tilted Keith’s face up so they were eye to eye. “And I hope it keeps happening in the future.”

Keith worried his bottom lip between his teeth and Lance kissed him again to make him stop.

“Was that your… first kiss last night?” Lance rested his forehead against Keith’s. Keith nodded. “Wow.”

“Shut up… just because you’ll hit on anything that moves.” Keith rolled his eyes.

With another laugh Lance rolled his eyes right back. “You are by far my favorite alien to kiss.”

Huffing, Keith closed his eyes. “I’m _not_ an alien. I was born on Earth.”

“You’re part alien, so you totally count towards my alien fetish.”

“Ugh, I don’t need to hear about your weird fetishes Lance.” Pidge’s voice came from the doorway. Lance sat up and looked at her, his face going red.

“What the hell Pidge! Didn’t you ever hear of knocking?”

“I didn’t exactly expect to find the two of you together, you know?” She rolled her eyes at him. “Anyway, Coran got Allura calmed down enough to actually talk to the guys from the Blade of Marmora about our alliance, so you guys should get dressed and join us on the bridge.”

“Will do.” Lance looked down at Keith, who was grimacing. He looked back at Pidge with confusion as he carded his fingers through the other boy’s hair. “Why did _you_ come to get us?”

“I’m already over the shock that Keith is part alien, part Galra. Actually, you being part Galra is probably going to be some how useful. I mean, this probably means that you can interact with their tech, right?” She leaned on the door frame.

Lance chuckled, looking down at Keith, who sighed. Pidge was always about practicality. “He can definitely interact with their tech.”

“See? It’s cool. I’m actually really curious what kind of ways your two very different DNAs work…” She trailed off when she noticed the cold gaze Lance was giving her. “Alright, I’ll ask to study him later when the universe is less at threat by his evil cousins.”

The door shut once she was out of the doorway. Lance couldn’t help but double over laughing. Keith moved so he was leaning on Lance’s leg. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” Lance grinned at him.

“Go get dressed.” Keith leaned up to kiss him.

“You can manage on your own?”

“I’m going to figure out how to, I can’t rely on you every time I have of flare up of this... whatever it is.”

“Rasp, and yes, you can.”

“No, because I can’t let this get in the way of being a Paladin. Saving the universe, that has to come before everything.”

Sighing, Lance got out of bed and looked down at Keith. “No, you’re right. Even if it does keep you out of the fight sometimes, we can’t both be out of it.”

Keith nodded, groaning as he sat up. “Go, I’ll wait for you when I’m done.”

Lance stood outside of Keith’s door, he was listening trying to make sure that Keith was okay in there, since he was apparently still getting dressed. When he came out, he was chuckling. “The shower was still on.”

“Oh.. shit… I knew I forgot something last night. Guess I had other stuff on my mind.” Lance took his hand. “You going to be okay to walk on your own?”

Keith nodded, looking at him seriously. “Stay close, just in case though.”

Halfway there, Keith squeezed Lance’s hand. “Can we keep this quiet for a while? Unless Pidge already… I just don’t want…”

“I understand.”

When they walked into the bridge, their hands no longer linked, everyone looked up at them. Allura, Shiro, and Hunk all looked away quickly. Lance touched Keith’s shoulder gently, but the other boy just sort of shrugged him off and moved over to where Kolivan and the other Galra were standing. They greeted him, asking about his wounds. Keith reassured them, looking over at Shiro and then Allura. Neither of them were looking at him.

Hunk walked over to Lance, looking thoroughly confused. Lance just grinned at him, as he looked for Coran. The Altean man was looking at him, a questioning look on his face. Lance replied with a silent nod. Coran then whispered to Allura who started talking, loud enough that everyone turned their attention to her.

After the briefing, Shiro pulled Keith aside and Lance wanted to know what they were talking about. He hoped it was Shiro telling him reassuring things about his new discovery. The room was clearing out, but Lance was going to wait for Keith.

“You’re the blue paladin, yes?” Kolivan walked over to him. Lance blinked up at him, but nodded.

“Name’s Lance.”

“Lance, you didn’t seem upset when Keith made his announcement yesterday.”

Shrugging, Lance glanced over at where Keith and Shiro were now hugging. “I don’t care if he’s an alien. Not all of you purple giants are evil, otherwise you guys wouldn't be helping us.”

“It’s a shame that not all of your team have the same thoughts, but it is a good step that Princess Allura is willing to ally with us.” Kolivan nodded at him.

“Actually, I have something I want to ask you. What do you guys know about a disease called the Rasp?”

“There hasn’t been a confirmed case in thousands of years, but it is used as a threat to make kids wash behind their ears.” Kolivan looked at him strangely. “I know that it also affected the Alteans, but not as severely or chronically.”

“So, you don’t know any treatments or anything?” Lance sighed, scratching his head.

“Why do you ask?” The other Galra asked, gruffly. Lance swallowed hard and looked at Keith.

“I see. So, you knew before Keith said anything about being Galra?” Kolivan nodded knowingly. “Once we have taken care of Zarkon, we’ll make sure we find something to help him.”

“Thank you.”

“He is a Blade of Marmora now, along with being a Palading of Voltron. We need him to be at top shape.” Then he left with the other Galra following closely behind him. Lance huffed once he was gone, focusing again on Keith and Shiro.

Keith smiled at him as he walked over. Lance smiled back at him, taking his hand and giving it a sqeeze. “You and Shiro cool again?”

“Yeah, we are. I understand that it’s hard for him, but he apologized and promised that he wasn’t going to let his perception of the Galra change anything.” Keith looked away as his face flushed . “And he congratulated us on… uh… being an _us_.”

Laughing, Lance glanced over at Shiro, who was walking out of the room. He looked back at Keith and kissed his cheek.

“Gross. I may be okay with Keith’s species discovery, but I’m not sure I can be okay with this if you’re going to be so… gross about it.” Pidge was sitting on the floor, the mice climbing on her as she was doing something to a piece of tech Kolivan had given her, or she had stolen from him.

Keith and Lance shared a glance before pulling each other in close and kissing.

“Yeah, nope…” Pidge stood up, the mice still on her and walked out.

They all were going to set out to their individual destinations after they ate something. Keith and Lance had their legs touching under the table as everyone ate in silence. The atomsphere in the room was so mixed. Everyone was anxious about their missions. Allura was glaring at Keith and Hunk occasionally glanced at him warily. Lance wanted to say something, but Keith gripped his knee tightly when he opened his mouth to say something. With a sigh, Lance looked back down at his food.

Hunk pulled Lance aside while everyone was heading to the hangars to head out on their individual missions.

“Dude, why did I get stuck with your Galra boyfriend? What if, I don’t know… what if he goes Galra or something?” Hunk sounded honestly concerned it would happen.

“Hunk, bro. He’s not ‘going to go Galra’, he’s not the hulk. You’ll be fine.” Lance rolled his eyes. He loved Hunk, but he was being ridiculous.

“Yeah, but like, he’s not…”

“Buddy, just… stop. Actually, you should be more worried about him like passing out or something. He’s still pretty messed up from being sick and what he had to do to find out that he’s an alien.” Keith’s voice echoed in his head ‘I’m not a fucking alien Lance’.

“Dude, but…”

“Take care of him for me?” Lance smiled at him, hoping that despite his prejudices Hunk could at least agree to that.

“He seems fine.”

“Please, humor me?”

“Alright, alright, fine.” Hunk started walking towards the hangars. “But let’s just say he does do Galra.”

Groaning, Lance just followed him, not humoring him. “Just talk to him Hunk. He’s not any different than he was before.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I wanted it to be done ages ago, but life happened. It was also hard to figure out the logistics of being mostly canon compliant, but the final installment is here now. Yay!

“Keith.” Coran’s voice called for him while him and Lance were heading back to the castle. They both turned to look at the man. “Some the Olkari helped me with a smaller device.”

“Okay?” Keith’s brows furrowed and glanced at Lance who just shrugged.

Coran held out something that looked like standard Olkari tech. It was a bracelet with tracks that looked like they should’ve been glowing surrounding it. “It should help you track your flare ups. Green is normal, yellow is a mild flare up or the start of a flare up, red is a major flare up, and blue is an illness.”

When Keith touched it, the tracks started glowing green. He smiled at Coran and slipped it on his wrist. The Altean opened his mouth to say something, probably about the science, but made a surprised yelp when Keith jumped up and hugged his around the shoulders. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome my boy.” Coran patted his back and smiled down at him when Keith finally let go.

“Any luck on finding medicines to help?” Lance wrapped his arm around Keith’s shoulders. Keith was twisting the bracelet on his wrist, staring at it with a conflicted look on his face.

“Not yet, sorry. I’ll keep looking as soon as this is over.” Coran sighed, glancing out at the teledav in the distance. “Have you considered telling the rest of the team? We should have a plan if you can’t fly.”

“I-I… I’ll tell them after this final fight. I can’t sit this out, we need Voltron.” Keith’s voice cracked at the end of his sentence.

“Alright, just be careful.”

“Oh, uh… how contagious is this? Like can the Blade catch this from him?” Lance asked after the three stood there in awkward silence for a few moments.

“Not that I know of. I believe that it can only be transferred from an Altean to a Galran, so you don’t have to worry about spreading this.” Coran nodded and turned to go back to work on the teledav.

Keith turned towards Lance and pressed his face into his neck. “At least that’s one less thing I have to worry about.”

“Come on, let’s get some rest. We need to be in our best shape for this last fight.” Lance hugged him tightly. “You were so awesome on the Balmera, but you still look a little shaky.”

“I’m good really, I’m ready for this fight.” The serious look on Keith’s face made Lance’s heart sink. He knew that was a lie, but he just nodded and kissed him anyway.

Once they were in Lance’s room, sitting across from each other in comfortable silence, Lance looked up at Keith. “Hey.”

“Hey?” Keith looked at him strangely.

“Come home with me, when this is all over.”

The shocked look on Keith’s face faded into something like sad confusion as he looked down between them, plucking at the sheet absently. “I-I… Lance, I need to…”

“I’m not stay home, Keith. I want to come with you to find your family.” Lance put his hands on Keith’s, ducking his head slightly so he was looking in Keith’s face. “They have no idea what happened to me, and I just want to see them. I want to introduce you to them.”

Keith looked shocked again as he looked up at Lance. “You… you want to come with me?”

Nodding, Lance smiled. “Thinking about you out in the expanse of space by yourself… especially with your condition… you don’t have to be alone anymore Keith.”

Tears started falling down Keith’s face, and Lance’s smile fell.

“I’m sorry, what did…”

“No, no… these are…” Keith smiled and put his forehead against Lance’s, still crying. “These are happy tears. You have no idea how much it means to hear that.”

“And I mean it.” Lance wiped the tears away. “Even if we don’t find what you’re looking for, you’ll always have this family: me, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Coran, and even Allura when she gets over her racial prejudices.”

Keith sobbed, closing his eyes. “You said you wanted me to meet _your_ family. Will they… will they be okay with you dating another… guy?”

“My dad will try to cut your hair, my little brothers and sisters are going to wrestle you, mama… she’s going to feed you so much food.” Lance carded his hands through Keith’s hair. “It took them a little while to warm up to the idea of me going both ways, but they don’t care as long as I’m happy.”

“Lance…” He leaned into the touch, letting out a contented sigh at his hair being played with.

“I hope they love you as much as I do…” Lance paused, realizing what he had said. They’d barely been together for a few days, and most of that time was spent either apart or with Keith suffering. He’d been falling for Keith for so much longer than that though. He was even more shocked when lips were on his.

“I love you too.” The words were soft and Lance just smiled at him.

The short time before they went into battle was spent sitting and talking, or training. Lance kept grabbing Keith’s wrist, obsessively checking the new device that monitored his health. Keith kept threatening to take it off. There was so much tension in the castle, that it was unnerving. The excitement of the end being near, the fear of failure, it swirled around them as Slav constantly questioned everyone’s actions, Allura continued not to look directly at Keith, and the Blade’s leaders moved in and out.

As they walked to the bridge to get ready for their final fight against Zarkon, Lance intertwined his fingers with Keith’s, then pulled his hand up and stared at his bracelet. Keith rolled his eyes and brought their hands closer to his face, kissing Lance’s fingers. “I’d be going no matter what that thing said.”

“I know, but I feel better about it, seeing that it’s green.”

As the battle went on, Lance couldn’t help but worry about Keith. It was stupid, he should’ve been worrying about himself, but he wasn’t. Which hit would set off another flare up? What if he got caught while on the ship. Being with a complete daredevil was going to give him an ulcer. He figured that Keith was worried about him too though, at least a part of him hoped he was.

It somehow seemed to go on forever and like it ended in a flash. Lance was completely spent by the time the revelation that they had won set in. No one was cheering, but he knew it was over by the complete in action of everyone else. A few seconds as everyone else really believed their instincts and everyone’s voice was on the coms at once, everyone but one.

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice. When there was no answer, Keith asked again as his voice cracked. All the lions were landing in the hangar, including Black. Shiro didn’t answer though. Keith was out of Red before the lion even landed, rushing towards Black. Black opened up and everyone else was rushing after Keith.

Shiro was sitting, obviously unconscious, in the lion. His helmet was knocked off and there was not a small amount of blood dribbling out of his mouth and falling down from a head wound. Allura gasped as Keith wrapped his arms around the older boy, tears falling down his face. Lance very gently wrapped his arms under Shiro’s arms.

“Come on, let’s get him to the healing pods. We could all probably use some healing.” Lance looked at Keith, nodding at him. “He’s going to be okay.”

Shiro let out a pained gasp when they lifted him. Hunk helped to guide him around the panels of the cockpit. Everyone followed after them, except Coran who was running ahead to set up the pods.

They made sure Shiro was set up first, everyone watching as Keith lingered in front of it even as Coran pressed buttons. Lance put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “He’s going to be okay.”

“I-I know… I just can’t help but be worried…” Keith put his hand on Lance’s.

Lance looked at the hand on his and groaned. “Keith, when exactly did this turn blue?”

Keith swore under his breath, glancing back at Lance. “I feel fine, none of the symptoms must’ve kicked in yet.”

“Probably the rush from battle keeping your system alert. We should get you into a pod next.” Coran pulled up the same pod that Keith had been in before. Keith swallowed hard and nodded as he walked over to the pod, prying off his armor.

“What do you mean ‘blue’?” Pidge crossed her arms, looking between Keith and Lance.

“And what is that bracelet exactly?” Allura’s gaze was focused on Coran.

“And ‘symptoms’? That sounds bad.” Hunk waved his hands to emphasize his point.

Keith glanced at Lance, nodding slightly. Coran patted his back as he motioned for Keith to get into the pod. Lance sighed, looking back at the others. They’d have to tell Shiro about it later, and probably just Shiro. Their leader was going to mother hen Keith so hard.

“Keith’s got this disease…” Lance started, closing his eyes tightly when he heard the woosh of the pod closing around Keith. He opened them again to finish explaining Keith’s situation.

They didn’t have much time to respond because Coran was urging them all into pods, but the pitying looks they gave to Keith before they got into their pod was enough to tell Lance what they thought. He didn’t need them to pity Keith, they needed them to support him.

Lance was the last one in the pods and the first one out. Coran frowned at him and Lance didn’t like the look on the Altean’s face. They should’ve been celebrating with their allies and then returning to Earth, but that look told him something was going to ruin his plans for the rest of his life.

“What is it?” Lance swallowed hard, not daring to look at Keith or Shiro’s pods. He hoped it wasn’t bad news about them.

“I just got a transmission from Kolivan. Help me open the others.”

Lance nodded and went to Pidge while Coran when to Hunk. Both seemed confused, but just waited while Lance and Coran got Allura out. Both stared at Shiro. He still looked in rough shape, but much better than he had when he was put in. Coran made note that the pod agreed.

Shiro looked around at them, the expression on his face unreadable. Lance finally looked at Keith, who was covered in purple patches and teal colored spots.

“My alien boyfriend has space-pox.” Lance huffed as he caught Keith in his arms as he fell out of the pod.

“I’m not a fucking alien Lance.” Keith groaned as he pushed away from Lance.

“You’re kind of an alien.” Pidge and Hunk said in unison.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with being an alien.” Shiro’s voice was daring, as he stared at Keith. He was concerned, and confused. Understandably. “What’s going on?”

“First, Coran, you said something about a message from Kolivan?” Lance looked at the Altean man, and reached for Keith when he tensed up.

“Yes…” Coran pressed a few buttons on the consol on the wall, and a video of Kolivan popped up.

“Paladins…” His face looked grim. “We defeated Zarkon, but his son… Prince Lotor… he found and destroyed one of our most important bases. He is just as ruthless as his father. This war is not yet over.”

His face faded and a star map appeared instead. “These coordinates are where we believe he’ll strike next. It is a planet a group of rebels had freed after hearing about Voltron’s return. We do not currently have the man power to offer more than assistance.”

Everyone looked horrified as the message ended. Tears were streaming down both Pidge and Allura’s faces. Hunk and Shiro were both shaking. Lance felt like he was going to throw up. Keith… Keith did throw up. Everyone else gagged as they watched him, turning away and covering their mouths.

Lance pulled him close, he was shaking and sobbing now. He was burning up. “It’s okay, you’re okay. I got you…”

“I can’t fly like this.” Keith hid his face against Lance’s neck, and the blue paladin only hugged him tighter.

“Shiro, what are we going to do? You still look like you’re in rough shape too.” Lance looked at their leader, who was watching him and Keith sadly.

“We have to go. Hopefully we won’t need to form Voltron.” Shiro sighed, crossing his arms.

“And what if we do? We could try to do it without the right arm, but…” Hunk started, but everyone glared at him. He put his hands up in defense.

“I’ll fly the red lion.” Allura said, no doubt in her voice.

Keith put a hand to head and groaned. “She’s not okay with that idea.”

“It’ll be okay, we can…” Pidge stopped when she realized that they might not be able to. “What’s plan b?”

Keith looked at Lance, an odd look on his face. “You could fly Red.”

“Me? Okay, but… who would fly Blue?” Lance closed his eyes and saw a blue overlaid image of Allura. Blue was not keen on the idea, but she’d let it happen. “Apparently Blue’s fine with Allura flying her.”

“Then it’s settled, we need to get to those coordinates immediately. Lance will pilot the red lion and Allura will pilot the blue lion, temporarily.” Shiro sounded so sure, his usual tone of leadership. His gaze softened as at Keith and Lance again. “Lance, take Keith back to his room to rest. When this fight is over, you’re both going to tell me what’s going on with him.”

Both boys groaned, but moved out the medbay as quickly as they could. They had to stop halfway to the room for Keith to throw up again. Lance grimaced at the puddle of vomit on the floor, but the tiles around it just swirled a few times and when they stopped, it was gone. He stared at it for a while before Keith shifting his weight reminded him of what he was doing.

“Hey, you going to be okay?” Lance knelt down next to the bed. Keith just closed his eyes and nodded. He kissed Keith’s sweat covered forehead and stood up.

“Don’t crash her, okay?”

Lance chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll try not to.”

“I’m serious, you damage my lion and I’m breaking up with you.” Keith’s voice didn’t sound serious.

“Me and your lion will be back before you know it.” Lance left without looking back at Keith. The other paladin looked so vulnerable that if Lance looked back he wouldn’t leave.

When he got down to the hangar, Allura was the only one standing there, a bayard in each hand. His and Keith’s. She held Keith’s out to him with a frown. “Are you sure you can handle the red lion?”

“If I can handle Keith, I can handle his lion.” Lance grinned at her before walking over to Blue, putting his face against her nose. “Hey, keep the Princess safe okay? I may be dating Keith now, but she still owes me a kiss.”

Allura rolled her eyes at the back of his head. Red growled, and Lance turned to look at the lion with a grin. “Totally kidding. Your reckless paladin is the only alien I’ll be kissing for the foreseeable future.”

Red then opened up to let him in. Lance felt a rush of red tinted affection as he was pulled towards the control panel. He gently ran his hand over the controls before grabbing them. “Let’s get this over with so I can get back and take care of our Keith, huh?” The affection only grew and it made Lance grin.

“Princess, Lance, you two ready to go?” Shiro asked through the comms.

“Yes.” Allura’s voice came through, and Lance could feel a bit of apprehension from Blue. He sighed and tried to be reassuring as he replied to Shiro.

Flying Red was so different than Blue. It wanted to do so much on its own, or nothing at all. Every idea it put in his head was absolutely insane, which was not too surprising. He felt so dangerous as he flew around at speeds he could never hope to achieve with his own lion. The fire power was so cool.

Being part of Voltron in Red was even stranger. Being a leg while floating in the void really didn’t affect the battle much, but being the right arm, the literal right-hand man. He was so determined not to fuck up. Red was being rather supportive, which was helping a lot.

“Allura? Allura!?” Lance yelled into the comms when he got a sense of blue tinted panic. She wasn’t okay.

“I-I… I don’t know what to do!” She yelled, sounding like she was close to crying.

“Just calm down, listen to Blue. She’s trying to help you!” Lance directed Red to smash one of the smaller ships that was firing on them.

There was no robeast, yet at least, and Lance was hoping that wouldn’t change.

“I-I… I got it!” Allura still sounded a little on edge, but Blue seemed to be calming down. Red growled in his head and he groaned.

Having two lions in his head was going to get old quick.

The battle was long, longer than it should’ve been. It was probably attributed to them not being in top shape from their previous fight and being a paladin down. But the battle ended, and all the lions landed heavily in the hangar.

Allura collapsed on the ground in front of Blue once she was out. Pidge and Hunk leaned on each other heavily. Shiro looked like he was going to fall over.

Lance rubbed Red’s nose. “Hopefully I won’t need to fly you again any time soon.” A surge of appreciation when through him, then urgency. Red wanted him to get back to Keith, or she’d fly through the castle to check on him herself.

He glanced at Allura and Blue, smiling at them. “You two did great.” Allura just stared at him blankly, giving him what Pidge had discovered was the Altean equivalent of the finger. His grin just widen before he walked over to Shiro.

“Let’s go check on Keith, then we’ll get you back in healing pod.” Lance held his hand out, offering Shiro help.

Shiro nodded, walking off ahead of Lance. Lance sighed, no wonder Keith and Shiro got along so well, they were both too stuborn for their own good.

As they walked, Lance described Keith’s condition. Shiro grimaced as Lance explained. “So, this will keep happening to him?”

“Yeah, unfortunately. He was hoping that… this shouldn’t be a problem anymore, but…” Lance shook his head. “This should all be over.”

“We’ll defeat Lotor, like we defeated Zarkon. And we’re all going to do it together.” Shiro put a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Lance just nodded.

“Keith?” Lance asked as he entered the room. Keith was curled up with his back against the wall. Tears were streaming down his face. When Lance sat down next to him and reached for him, Keith flinched away. “Keith.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that I was… I was purple.” Keith looked up at him. Lance was sure that the patches had moved on his face and neck.

“You’re not all purple?” Lance tried to sound reassuring, but Keith just glared at him. “Remember, as long as you don’t grow a tail, we’re good.”

“Keith.” Shiro’s voice had Keith looking up at him instantly. “How are you feeling?”

“I-I… I feel like shit… the spot burn, and I feel so nauseous.” Keith huffed, looking back at his knees. “But having you guys back, that’ll help.”

“Do you want to get back in a healing pod? You’re really warm, should probably cool down.” Lance ran his hand against Keith’s forehead.

Swallowing hard, Keith nodded. “Okay.”

Nodding back at him, Lance helped him up. He was steadier on his feet with this illness than he was with the last one. “Red’s really fun to fly, but I don’t really know if I’d want to fly her all the time.”

“You should try piloting the black lion.” Keith gave him a half smile as they walked out of the room.

“When the hell did you fly Black?” Lance looked between Keith and Shiro. Both of them just shared a smile and huffed. “Guys, that isn’t an answer!”

It was hard for everyone to adjust to a new enemy, and Keith’s illness. Shiro and Allura hovered over him, and Lance could tell that Keith hated it. He also appreciated it, even if he refused to admit it to anyone but Lance, late at night before they fell asleep.

It was two weeks before another flare up, it was mild and Keith insisted that he was fine enough to help with an infiltration mission. During the mission, he was separated from Lance and Shiro, and every time he made a pained noise that the comms picked up, he clarified that it was the Rasp and he wasn’t being attacked. Eventually he did get into a fight and he severely injured by the time that Lance and Shiro made it to get him out.

Lance started to notice that Keith’s scars were purple, the same purple color that he had while he had what Coran later told them were ‘void pox’, which Galra got from too long in empty space. Keith was really self-conscious about the purple color marking his skin, especially when he was around Allura. Lance liked to kiss the scars, hoping that it would help. Keith’s small smiles told him that it did.

A few weeks later, a sudden severe flare up happened in the middle of a battle against a robeast. The pain was so much that Keith passed out in Red and Red’s roaring in Lance’s head was all consuming as Voltron broke apart. Lance groaned as he ejected himself from Blue, jet packing towards Red, who was still roaring. He somehow managed to have enough of a thought to radio Allura and tell her that Blue was heading back to the castle to get her. All he wanted to do was hold and sooth Keith, but he needed to fly Red and get Voltron back together or else Keith would be even worse.

Every time he flew Red, he felt her bond with her growing. He was finding new things she could do. It made him feel closer to Keith

Coran or the Blade would occasionally dig up a drug that would help with a new illness that Keith would catch, but when they didn’t Lance spent a lot of time pacing in front of a healing pod. They had painkillers, and if it was mild flare up, they would help him enough to continue training and do missions. The severe flare ups, to take enough for him to be able to dull the pain to a bearable level, he was too stoned out of his mind to actually do much than lay in bed and lazily kiss Lance.

Lance punched a lot of walls, hearing anything about Keith’s condition. Coran and Pidge dedicated a lot of time studying the virus and Keith’s biology. They rarely had good news. Sometime Coran would tell him sheepishly they had run out of painkillers, only to be told by Kolivan or another Blade that they didn’t have any either. Keith tried to stay calm when Lance lost his cool over things like that, even trying to comfort him. It was always funny to Lance that Keith was comforting him when Keith was the one in nerve searing pain.

“Have you guys thought about just making the switch permanent?” Keith asked, sitting at dinner after just recovering from an illness that they didn’t have an equivalent to on Earth. Lance was sure that Keith was going to die, at least three times in the week he was sick.

Everyone dropped their spoons, looking up at him. He just closed his eyes tightly. Allura and Lance shared a look, but it was Shiro that spoke. “Keith, you’re a vital part of the team. Yes, Voltron functions with Allura in Blue and Lance in Red, but even I can tell that Red doesn’t respond to Lance like she does to you, and same with Blue and Allura. Just because you’re…”

“I’m a liability. I… I can’t even be a part of the team half the time. I always seem to be out when I’m really needed and…” Keith’s voice broke as he stopped. Lance looked at him softly. They had been together long enough now that Lance knew that his boyfriend didn’t want to be touched.

“And, we wanted to wait until we were finished to tell you, but we’ve been working on something.” Pidge huffed, glancing at Coran and then Hunk before meeting Keith’s eyes. “It’s not a cure, but it should reduce the number and severity of the flare ups. A few more days, and we should be good to do a test in you with a small dose.”

Keith’s eyes went wide, then he glanced at Lance. Lance put up his hands. “I didn’t know anything about this either.”

“We just want you to be okay dude. I also want to reduce Lance’s freak outs every time you get sick or whatever. I think next time, he’s going to give himself a heart attack.” Hunk smiled at the two of them.

“And I think flying Red is getting to his head, he’s starting to do even more dangerous stuff than you do.” Shiro grinned at Lance.

“And every time it’s helped.” Lance was glaring at Shiro, but he could feel Keith glaring at him. Lance looked at Keith when he finally got tired of glaring at their leader. “So, it’s okay when you go in without a thought about your own life?”

“Shut up.” Keith rolled his eyes.

“So, we’re not making the switch permanent?” Shiro said, picking his spoon back up. Everyone agreed and went back to eating. Keith asked Pidge about how what they were making would work, and immediately regretted it when he didn’t understand the second, third, or fourth word out of her mouth.

After dinner, Lance pulled Keith on top of him on their bed. They had moved into one of the larger rooms a while ago, embarrassingly at Shiro’s suggestion. Keith nuzzled into him. “Careful, I might still be contagious.”

Keith moved his hand so Lance could see his bracelet. It still had a slight blue tint to the light. Allura and Shiro had both caught Keith’s last illness, though they only had it for a little less than two days.

“I’ll risk it.” Lance chuckled, pushing on Keith’s shoulders so he could kiss him. Keith smiled against his lips.

Keith curled up under Lance’s chin and hummed. “Lance.”

“Yes love?” Lance was playing with Keith’s hair, a content smile on his face.

“I really wish there was a cure for this.”

“Me too. I’d give up my left arm to find a cure for you.”

“Are you talking about your actual left arm, the green lion, or Pidge?” Keith leaned up to look at Lance, one of his eyebrows raised. Lance laughed and kissed him.

“My actual left arm, since if there’s any possibility of a cure, our green paladin is going to find it.” Lance tilted his head slightly. “I hope this new medicine will help like they say it will.”

“I think it will. It should help at least.”

“When this is over, we’ll have more time to work on a cure for you. Saving the universe comes first, right?” Lance cupped Keith’s cheek. Keith’s eyes fluttered closed.

“Yeah, though it’s hard to remember that when I have a flare up and I just want you to hold me, and for Shiro to bring me Hunk’s specialty food goo.”

“I totally understand. Every time I fly Red, the thing I want most is to get back to you. It’s probably why she likes me so much.”

“I love you.” Keith rested his head against Lance’s.

“Love you too.” Lance pulled him close, letting his eyes shut. There was still a ways to go before the war was over and they needed to sleep, even if Lance never wanted to stop talking, especially to Keith.


End file.
